Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by EPES SARGENT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 35585 Stereotyped by NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, It is now more than a third of a century since Lord Byron alluded to the author of "Human Life" as the Nestor of the living poets. Since that time most of his then celebrated brethren have passed away; but the venerable bard still lives, to enjoy the society he adorns, and the fame which brightens with his years. He has taken leave of Byron, and Campbell, and Moore, and all his poetical rivals and contemporaries; but he has kept alive the sentiments and sympathies of his nature, and is still checred by the company of younger poets, who regard him with the genial warmth of old friendship. It was the consolation of Campbell, in his declining years, that he had never written a line against religion or virtue. We may say, with equal truth, of Rogers, that he leaves no verse which, "dying," he could "wish to blot." Exquisite taste and judgment pervade everything from his pen. But, while this purity of style and sentiment renders him a favorite poet for the study of the young, his great and pecu |